asthejoeflieshttp://saverocity.com/asthejoeflies
Just an average joe trying to fly his family for lessMon, 19 Mar 2018 09:13:16 +0000en-UShourly1https://i0.wp.com/saverocity.com/asthejoeflies/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2017/02/cropped-joe_gravatar_forweb.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1asthejoeflieshttp://saverocity.com/asthejoeflies
323270091749Why you shouldn’t sign up for every credit card sign up bonus you hear abouthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Asthejoeflies/~3/VbXl8H9_bq4/
http://saverocity.com/asthejoeflies/why-you-shouldnt-sign-up-for-every-credit-card-sign-up-bonus-you-hear-about/#respondMon, 19 Mar 2018 09:13:16 +0000http://saverocity.com/asthejoeflies/?p=7672

I think the credit card and travel hacking game can be dangerous for a variety of reasons. One of the most dangerous can also be one the most subtle. For lack of a better term, I’ll call it “internet peer pressure.” Even if you don’t overspend to meet credit card sign up bonuses and pay […]

]]>

I think the credit card and travel hacking game can be dangerous for a variety of reasons. One of the most dangerous can also be one the most subtle. For lack of a better term, I’ll call it “internet peer pressure.” Even if you don’t overspend to meet credit card sign up bonuses and pay off your balances monthly, there exists an inherent pressure from the blogosphere to be signing up for every single credit card sign up bonus that comes around. When I started this game, I always felt I HAD to have the newest, best credit card sign up bonuses out there. It starts off simply, but like I said, it’s very subtle. I think a lot of travel credit card enthusiasts go through phases along these lines:

Four Phases of Travel Credit Card Enthusiasts

In Phase 1, you’re still not convinced that applying for credit cards regularly won’t hurt your credit. You dip your toe into the pool by getting a card, probably a Chase Sapphire Preferred because you’ve heard about it ad nauseum. For some people, you’ll take one trip with those points, but for others…

Phase 2: Establishing a credit card application rhythm

If you continue on, you start getting a good handle on how often you can apply for credit cards, and fall into a predictable rhythm of adding one, two, or more new cards every couple months. Maybe you double or triple the number of trips you take in a year, and you really get into the swing of earning miles and points regularly through sign up bonuses. Now lots of people stop at Phase 1, but I think for most people in Phase 2 you end up at…

Phase 3: You really want to sign up for more credit cards but there are no good signup bonuses left so you just chase that next bonus

I think I hit Phase 3 about 2-3 years into the game. I had exhausted most of the “great” sign up bonuses but I felt like I had to still sign up for new cards every three months so I started applying for good, not great sign up bonuses. I’d convince myself mentally that I “needed” these cards even though I had no uses for the miles or they belonged to obscure programs. Hopefully for those who enter Phase 3, like myself, they enter Phase 4:

Phase 4: You realize that you should only be earning the miles that you plan to spend, and that almost everyone in this space is trying to sell you credit cards

Have a plan for your miles and points. Earn the miles you plan to spend. Once I finally burned that into my brain, I stopped chasing sign up bonuses. I then coupled this with my realization of the fact that all the “buzz” about every single new and “amazing” credit card sign up bonus out there results at least in some part from people who are trying to sell you said credit card.

Understanding the internet’s role in making you want to sign up for new credit cards

I’m not trying to be critical here, though I’m not trying to defend anyone either. But I’ll just speak for myself, even my blog and social media, which receives no compensations from banks for credit card conversions, contributes to the “buzz” behind cards. That’s because when my friend tells me they just bought a $1500 dollar snowblower my automatic reaction is “you should have signed up for a new credit card.”

Of course, this just perpetuates the notion that all spend should be going towards meeting credit card sign up bonus minimums. And if you’re in Phase 2, that’s almost definitely correct!

BUT. You get to a point where all of a sudden you are chasing points in programs that you don’t have a plan for. So, you may be earning more points, but if you don’t use them, maybe you should have just used them for regular spend on one of the cards you already have.

Even though we want to, we still don’t travel as much as we’d like to with these three in tow

Factor in the fact that the minority of the community, at least on the blogs, warns you to consider how “lifecycle effects” (copyright Free-quent Flyer) has changed your travel habits. My wife and I flew internationally 5 times a year before our first child, now our goal is 2 international trips a year.

Whenever a new credit card comes out, everyone gets excited, and rightfully so! I really wanted the Hilton Aspire card and I really want the new Iberia card. But the reality is I haven’t redeemed a single Hilton point or Avios (Avio?) for over two years). So as much as I want shiny new cards, it’s tough to say I can actually use those miles and points.

Whenever a new card comes out, 90% of blogs will write about it, travel hacking Twitter will blow up, and if it’s big enough, even your mom will ask you about it. It’s tough not to buckle under that kind of pressure, especially when the bonus is legitimately good. But I do my best to remember to ask myself: Am I thinking about my actual spending (of miles) habits when I fall for the buzz for new credit cards?

Orphaned Points – My Hall of Shame

I reached Phase 3 right around lifecycle effects dictated a restriction on my travel. So, I have a personal hall of shame, orphaned points I need to get rid of. I thought it’d be fun to share my sources of shame and how I plan to get rid of them.

Radisson Rewards (~140,000 points)

Earned via: Club Carlson credit card sign ups back in the day

Reason for shame: Still haven’t used a single point. Had a stay booked right before the extra free night expired but we ended up canceling.

Alaska Airlines (~150,000 miles)

Reason for shame: Alaska Airlines felt like a great idea. We love Seattle, we love flying Cathay to Hong Kong, and hey maybe we could even fly Emirates. But it turns out when we had kids we actually realized we don’t like traveling without them! (Except for once or twice). I also didn’t book using AS for our last trip to Hong Kong because I wanted the flexibility to change dates and times from AA.

Plan for use: No active plans. May just burn them on domestic AA flights.

I should just bite the bullet and use my Alaska miles for AA flights…if they ever open award space

Merrill Edge Points (~50,000 points)

Earned via: Merril Edge+ BofA card sign up bonus

Reason for shame: I guess I’m not ashamed of this, but I am reminding myself I need to use these points for my next flights

Plan for use: My next domestic flights

Final Thoughts

Remember, you don’t need to sign up for every credit card sign up bonus! Be sure to evaluate your miles and points needs and make your decisions accordingly. If you travel all the time, this probably applies less to you, but if you’ve got a growing family like mine, make sure you at least consider exercising discipline in your overall strategy.

Also, I’m sure some of you have orphaned points and your own hall of shame, so I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

One monkey wrench that often gets thrown into traveling with young kids is potty training. Some families, even ones that love to travel like ours, might take a break from traveling around potty training time. An accident at home can be very annoying, an accident on the road can be all that and more. We’re […]

]]>

One monkey wrench that often gets thrown into traveling with young kids is potty training. Some families, even ones that love to travel like ours, might take a break from traveling around potty training time. An accident at home can be very annoying, an accident on the road can be all that and more. We’re in the middle of potty training my son and considering he literally just lost his underwear (I searched the house, no idea where it went), I’ve got concerns about traveling with this kid while potty training. (Note: This is what happens when you put dad in charge :D). But sometimes as a family you have to travel while potty training, or maybe you just want to. So here are some of my best potty training travel tips, and I’d love to hear yours in the comments!

1. Know your child’s personality

This first tip is both common sense parenting and a caveat. No two kids are the same, so take everything this website (and others) says with a grain of salt. Only you know what works best for your child when it comes to amount of praise, rewards, need for scheduling, and degree of sarcasm necessary. (Joking.) But make sure you tailor your potty training strategy, whether at home or on the road, to what makes your child tick. This obviously becomes much easier when you’re potty training a second or third child, but you can still bear this in mind with the first.

For example, different children need different amounts of reminding and scheduling. Every kid probably needs to reminded to go to the bathroom when you start potty training, but children learn to tell you they need to go themselves at different rates. That’s just one of a million examples of how a child’s unique personality will require a unique strategy. So make sure when you’re employing any travel strategy to bear in mind your child’s personality.

2. Start early (both age-wise and before you travel)

I delayed potty training my then three year old daughter because we had a big trip to Disney World coming up. My reasoning, which I still think was fairly sound, was changing diapers would be easier than worrying about timing toilets. That delay proved unnecessary for two reasons. First, Disney World has incredible bathroom facilities for kids. In retrospect, this should have been obvious to me. Secondly, I’ve heard recently that people say that 20-30 months is the ideal potty training time. The reasoning goes, “the kid can’t hold it yet, so if you have them go regularly, they get used to it, and they figure it out.” Or some mess like that, IDK. So I could have potty trained my daughter long before the trip.

We’re trying that with my 2.5 year old son and aside from the aforementioned disappearing underpants, potty training is going very well. We’re also at least a month out from any large trips, so he should be potty trained in time for wherever we end up traveling in April. If you just started potty training but need to make an emergency trip, I’d recommend just reverting to diapers for a little while to prevent stress. If it’s an emergency trip you probably have bigger things to worry about anyway.

3. Use diapers for long stretches and to prevent bad accidents

I’m sort of over pull-ups as a concept, at least at home. I think children, especially young ones, understand more viscerally what is happening when they wet their underwear. However, I think diapers, pull-ups or otherwise, should still be part of your potty training travel strategy. A couple of examples to illustrate why:

When the seat belt sign is on, you just don’t have any idea when you can get to the bathroom. A diaper prevents you from having to try to navigate an airplane toilet in bumpy air.

In foreign countries, you may not always be able to reliably find a bathroom.

On road trips you don’t have to stress about waking someone up from a nap.

Obviously, when potty training you will be bringing an extra set of clothes (preferably two) in your go bag, but diapers will minimize your stress since you have a backup. Things like jet lag and overall exhaustion are tough for adults to handle, so I like to take the stress off a child in the middle of potty training.

Do pack a ton of plastic zip lock bags, though.

Naps are great, you don’t want to interrupt them

4. Use timers to keep on track

One thing about travel is that it can be stressful. (Related: Family Travel Conflicts). There can be so much going on that parents might not even have the mental bandwidth to remember a potty break. I find timers to be super useful both at home and on the road. Technology is great and frankly I need the assist to keep everything straight in my head, especially on the road. A bonus, in my experience, is that kids love timers. You can download the fun apps or just let them pick the ringtones or whatever.

Either way, timers help keep you on a schedule which helps prevent accidents. Obviously this may not work as well on a plane when there is drink service, lines, turbulence, etc., but that’s why you combine this with the diapers.

Our favorite timer, Childrens (sic) Countdown Timer

5. Try to keep your home routines as much as possible

Another thing the timer can help you with? Maintaining home routines. We try to keep home routines the same as much as possible when traveling, since traveling introduces so many new variables. Potty training is no exception. Routines help kids feel comfortable. They prevent potty issues as well as behavior issues.

When you’re on the plane, if your child goes potty once an hour, try to get them to go once an hour. At your hotel, same thing. And when you’re out and about town, try to do whatever you do when out and about your hometown. Routines don’t prevent disaster, but they help.

That also means if you use a portable toilet or toilet seat at home, bring it on the road too. Public bathrooms can understandably be strange and daunting to young kids, so bring what they’re familiar with from home to make them comfortable.

If you can, bring whatever you use at home

6. Don’t stress the small stuff

I’m a big offender, but it’s really not worth stressing about the small stuff, especially when traveling. Kids feed off their parents energy and if you constantly stress about anything, especially potty training, they will just feed off that negative energy. Go into your trip expecting a few accidents: they’ll likely happen. That’s okay! Just make sure you keep doing what you were doing at home and supporting your child positively. (Again, I need to remind myself of this often).

Remember, potty training is about winning the war, not any individual battles. Prepare yourself accordingly before you travel.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the top, I totally understand not wanting to potty training while traveling. I definitely have avoided it when possible, but sometimes it’s not possible. Overall, just like at home, patience and firm guidance should win the day. If you have any tips for potty training while traveling, I’d love to hear them in the comments.

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

It should come as no surprise that I love podcasts. I’ve been hosting and producing the Saverocity Observation Deck miles and points podcast with Trevor and formerly Joe Cortez for a couple of years now, and of course I love listening to all sorts of podcasts. (Current favorite? All Systems Goku from Giantbomb). I’ve been […]

]]>

It should come as no surprise that I love podcasts. I’ve been hosting and producing the Saverocity Observation Deck miles and points podcast with Trevor and formerly Joe Cortez for a couple of years now, and of course I love listening to all sorts of podcasts. (Current favorite? All Systems Goku from Giantbomb). I’ve been playing around with the idea of starting a Disney podcast with Leslie Harvey from Trips with Tykes since last summer. We finally mapped out what we hope for from a podcast and I’m happy to announce that our new weekly podcast, Disney Deciphered, is live now!

Leslie and I have a simple goal for Disney Deciphered. We want to help you and your family save money, time, and stress as you plan your Walt Disney World vacations. It’s a short form podcast, meaning we shoot for 15 minutes, perfect for washing the dishes or a short jog or whatever. Unlike the Observation Deck, you’ll likely take this podcast all in in one go. I won’t be doing this regularly, but I’ve embedded our intro episode below if you’d like to check it out.

The simple fact of the matter is, Walt Disney World has become incredibly complicated, especially for first timers or people who don’t visit often. The first time I went with the kids back in 2016 I felt the weight of the sheer amount of planning and knowledge I felt I needed to make the vacation run smoothly. You don’t need a Ph.D. to have a great time at Walt Disney World, but if you start your trip knowing a few things it can help make everything a bit easier.

So, Disney Deciphered is designed to help you slowly but surely break down those walls that might make Walt Disney World seem impenetrable. We’ll be breaking down simple things like how Walt Disney World consists of four parks and tackling bigger ways to save money and stress like annual passes and the Disney dining plan.

We’d love if you joined us every Wednesday to talk Walt Disney World planning. You can find the many different ways to connect with us below. We’re excited to be talking Disney and hope you give us a listen!

Do you save money with the Disney Dining plan? My stance on the Disney Dining Plan for years has been simple. I’d always say something along the lines of, “The Disney Dining Plan is a bad deal. Nobody will eat that much food.” And honestly, I still feel that way in most cases. The Disney […]

]]>

Do you save money with the Disney Dining plan? My stance on the Disney Dining Plan for years has been simple. I’d always say something along the lines of, “The Disney Dining Plan is a bad deal. Nobody will eat that much food.” And honestly, I still feel that way in most cases. The Disney Dining Plan reminds me of something like a 7-3 meal plan at college. Sure, theoretically you’ll eat 3 meals a day on campus 7 days a week, but in reality you often don’t use all your allotments. But it turns out saving money with the Disney Dining plan is very realistic in certain situations, though the annual pass definitely saves more families money.

The Backside of Magic podcast clued me in to the key to saving money with the dining plan, and I tested it out with the help of friend of the blog and Award Travel 101 moderator Rachel Berkey. So, let’s take a look at how the Disney Dining Plan works and how to save money. If you’re already familiar with the Disney Dining Plan, click here to skip to the part about saving money.

Children under 3 in your room do not need a dining plan. However, you must buy the dining plan for every person listed in your room. You pay for the dining plan for each night listed on your Disney reservation. No more, no less. You can use the dining plan from the day you check in until the day you check out.

What you get with the Disney Dining Plan

You can purchase three different types of dining plans. Each gives you different numbers of allotments in three credit buckets (per night of your hotel stay), plus a refillable souvenir mug. The souvenir mugs can be refilled at any hotel on Disney property but not in the parks. Note one fairly major change for 2018 is the inclusion of an alcoholic beverage for both quick service and table service meals.

Quick Service Credits

Quick service credits can be used at any counter service restaurant on property. Counter service generally means just that. No wait staff, just order at a counter and get your food.

Table Service Credits

Table service credits are used at sit down restaurants on Disney property. Some of the more expensive restaurants cost two table service credits, though the majority cost only one.

Snack Credits

Snack credits can be used for anything at a cart or counter service restaurant with the purple “DDP” sign. They range anywhere from a soda to some of the more expensive offerings at booths at the various Epcot festivals.

Any food or drink item with this logo can be purchased with a snack credit

The three different Disney Dining Plan types and prices

Quick Service Credits (per day)

Table Service Credits (per day)

Snack Credits (per day)

Adult Cost (per day)

Child Cost (per day)

Quick Service Dining Plan

2

0

2

$52.50

$21.74

Regular Dining Plan

1

1

2

$75.49

$25.75

Deluxe Dining Plan

0

3

2

$116.25

$39.99

(Note: All prices include tax and every dining plan comes with one free refillable souvenir mug)

Gratuity is NOT included in the Disney Dining Plan, so budget accordingly.

How to pay with the Disney Dining Plan

Paying with your dining plan is simple, most wait staff will ask you if you’re on the dining plan. Say yes, tap your magic band, and the appropriate credit will be deducted from your plan. One very important thing to note is you receive your full allotment of credits at the beginning of your stay. You can also use those credits to pay for anyone’s meal. That means you can use them all up as quickly (or slowly) as you’d like, and you can pay for friends or family who aren’t staying in your room too.

So for example, if you have the Quick Service Plan and are staying for three nights, you will receive 6 quick service credits and 6 snacks. As soon as you check in to your hotel, all of these will be available. So if you buy 6 hot dogs at Casey’s on your first day, you’ll be out of quick service credits for your trip.

You can check the number of dining credits you have left using the My Disney Experience app on your phone, which I’d highly recommend doing. You also get a list of what you have left on your restaurant receipts.

A dining plan well used

Why you usually don’t save money with the Disney Dining Plan

Many people like to get the Disney Dining Plan for convenience. It definitely eases the stress food wise, you pay up front and then you don’t worry about it in the parks. It also works great for older kids if you don’t want to give them money or a credit card. The Disney Dining Plan also prevents you from having to wander outside Disney property to look for (much cheaper) food. Disney wants this (obviously), but sometimes guests want this too.

But the reason you don’t usually save money with the Disney Dining Plan is due to breakage. In other words, it’s tough to use up all the credits you’re given realistically. Take the quick service plan for example. It’s certainly possible to spend $20 per meal and $6 per snack, especially if you take alcohol with your meal. But alcohol isn’t always an option and ordering extra food because it’s “free” doesn’t mean you’re actually saving money. Plus, at that point you’re still just breaking even.

In most instances, unless you plan very well and eat quite a bit, you’ll break even at best. Which, again, if you’re looking for convenience, might not be the worst thing. To consistently save money with the Disney Dining Plan, however, you have to understand the three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan.

Three keys to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan

1. Child dining plans are very cost efficient

The first trick to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan is understanding that the children’s cost is very cost efficient. Remember, Disney considers anyone between 3-9 a child (under 3 is free). Take the regular dining plan for example. It costs a child about $25 a day, but most character meals cost $25, so if you go to one character meal and one counter meal a day you save money.

Another reason why a child dining plan saves money: you can use child quick service credits to buy adult meals at counter service restaurants. In fact, Disney makes no distinction between “child” and “adult” quick service credits. Children can’t buy alcohol, however. (That would be wrong!) But let’s say you use your child’s plan to buy an adult quick service meal (~$12) and to pay for your child to go to Chef Mickey’s (~$25). You’ve already saved $12 and you haven’t even used your snack credits yet.

Note that on the regular dining plan, child table service credits must be used for children. You can also use a child table service credit to buy a child quick service meal, but not an adult quick service meal.

If you have children 3-9 listed on your hotel reservation, it can really help you save money with the Disney Dining Plan.

2. You can use your dining plan credits on anyone, including people not staying in your room

The second key to saving money with the Disney Dining Plan is knowing that your credits can be used for anyone. If you’ve ever had a stranger at the end of her trip offer to pay for your meal using leftover dining credits, you know this is true. That really happens! (Further proof that it’s tough to save money using the dining plan). That means that you can really save some money, or at least guarantee you break even, if you book multiple rooms or are traveling with a larger party. Why?

Remember I mentioned that the dining plan is like a college meal plan. It’s tough to realistically use it all up. However, if you have, say, grandparents booked in a separate room, you can use your credits to pay for their meals. If they dine with you once or twice you pretty much guarantee you will use up all the credits. When you combine this with the first key, your savings can start adding up.

My five year old daughter and I can still share a counter service meal and both be satisfied. Let’s say we were on the regular dining plan so we each have one quick service credit (2 total). We can use one credit for a meal to share between the two of us, and then the second for grandma, and boom: all of a sudden the whole family comes out ahead.

A snack from Festival of the Arts at Epcot

You can use your dining credits on any day

Another thing to remember is it doesn’t matter which day you use the dining credits on. If I visit Disney on a three day trip, I don’t think I’ll realistically go to three character meals. If I was on the dining plan I might end up going to three character meals due to “the power of freeeeee.” But I’d be losing money since I wouldn’t have spent that much money had I not purchased the dining plan.

However, I always go to at least one character meal. What if I use one of my table service credits to pay for grandma? All of a sudden I’m not paying more than I would have without the plan, and again, the family overall comes out ahead.

Remember, you only pay for the dining plan for the guests listed in the room you purchase the plan for. You don’t have to purchase the dining plans for multiple rooms you booked. So, if like me, your family size dictates getting two rooms sometimes, you could just put one parent and one child in one room and only get the dining plan for that room, while still sharing all the credits among the whole family.

One special note for the Deluxe Dining Plan: the dining credits have no designations. So the 3 meal credits you get each day can be used for counter service, table service, kids, or adults. So if you take my above example, I could buy the Deluxe Dining Plan for my room with one parent and one child and we’d just have 6 meal credits a day we could use for anyone, including grandma and grandpa. Contrast this with the regular dining plan, where child table service credits must be used for children. So you can make some real hay if you think about it.

Sharing dining plan with grandma and grandpa outside Katsura Grill

3. Alcohol is included in the 2018 Disney Dining Plan

So this doesn’t apply to everyone, and even if you do drink alcohol, you can’t get it at every restaurant. Most restaurants in the Magic Kingdom still do not serve alcohol.

However, if you do partake, the 2018 Disney Dining Plan includes alcoholic beverages. That makes saving money or at least breaking even much easier. Instead of getting a $3.29 soda, you get a $8 beer and save money. Personally, I don’t drink with every meal, so I don’t consider this a huge factor when I’m trying to save money with the Disney Dining Plan, but it is a factor.

My experience saving money with the Disney Dining Plan and how to calculate if you will save money

So before I left for my most recent trip, I used this handy tool created by Rachel Berkey to estimate my costs and whether the dining plan would make sense for my family. I traveled to Disney alone with my two older kids, but only one is above the age of three. (Related: Tips for flying alone with preschoolers). My parents stayed in a different room but joined us for some meals. We stayed at Coronado Springs for three nights.

We bought the Disney Dining Plan for my room, which meant I paid for one adult and one child, about $100 a day. However, I used two of my adult table service credits at Chef Mickey’s because my mom joined us. I used my last table service credit at Crystal Palace so I got good value out of all of those. On top of that we always used my daughter’s quick service credits for adult meals, and I bought one alcoholic drink.

We spent about $100 less than it would have cost us for our meals and snacks out of pocket on the trip. I don’t, however, really consider that our true “savings”. Simply put, if we had not bought the dining plan we would not have bought refillable souvenir mugs and some of the snacks we bought for the road. Even taking into consideration that I probably would have bought Diet Coke from Amazon Prime Now, I don’t count the refillable souvenir mugs as “savings”. So if you look at my rough spreadsheet below (from an earlier version of the tool), you’ll see I calculated that my real savings were $50. But I know some people think everything they get for “freeeeee” counts, and if you are that type, then you’d probably say I saved the $100+.

If you are Type A, which many Disney planners are, I advise you to try Rachel’s tool out to figure out whether the Disney Dining Plan will save you money. Remember, you’ll probably only save money if you use one or two of the tricks above. If I had to boil things down to one rule of thumb? If you are booking for multiple rooms, definitely do the math to see if you’ll save money by getting the dining plan for ONE of your multiple rooms.

Here again is the link to Rachel’s Disney Dining Plan Estimate Calculator. Make a copy for yourself and be sure to read the instructions carefully. It also includes some sample estimates as a guideline. Note we’re still working out some kinks so if you have issues, please e-mail me.

Final Thoughts

For many people, trying to save money with the Disney Dining Plan just isn’t worth the trouble. But if you like to plan, you definitely save money in the right circumstances. Remember, you can save if you book for one room but pay for guests in multiple rooms. You only pay for the guests listed on the room. Kids underpay, so you can take advantage of that as well. All in all, I kind of found managing my credits fun in a weird way. But I get that isn’t for everyone, so make sure you figure out what works for you and your family.

Still, I now am a believer that the Disney Dining Plan CAN save you money. You just need to approach it from the proper angle. Any questions? Drop a comment or e-mail me at asthejoeflies@gmail.com. I’m happy to help if you need it!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

So today IRL I had a friend ask me, “How long should I wait before applying for a new credit card?” This friend, who I’ll call Nicole, had been poking around my blog but couldn’t find if I had written about it anywhere. While I discussed the different ways applying for new credit cards affects […]

]]>

So today IRL I had a friend ask me, “How long should I wait before applying for a new credit card?” This friend, who I’ll call Nicole, had been poking around my blog but couldn’t find if I had written about it anywhere. While I discussed the different ways applying for new credit cards affects your credit score way back when this blog began, I never explicitly discussed how long to wait between credit card applications. I thought it’d be helpful to address this really quickly.

Of course, the answer, as always, is it depends. And I’m generally hesitant to hand out concrete advice these days, on the blog at least. We all have our unique situations. Still, I’ve had a few reader questions lately that I’d like to address, and I’ll start with this one.

For these reader questions, my aim is to provide a framework for people to make their decisions. While I know my friend’s particular situation and what I’d advise her, that doesn’t mean it’s the same thing I’d advise another reader. But I think the framework we approach questions generally remains consistent.

So, what should you consider when deciding how long to wait between credit card applications? TL;DR at the bottom of the post if you’re lazy, but if you’re a beginner make sure you understand what you’re getting yourself into.

Can you handle paying your credit cards in full?

Since this post suits beginners more, let me start with the biggest reminder. Credit cards and the benefits you can earn are wonderful, but you must have both the means and the discipline to pay your cards off in full. Otherwise, the banks are making money off of you and you are putting yourself in a negative financial situation.

There are, of course, exceptions for advanced players – but that’s 400-level stuff. Be responsible, pay your credit card bills on time and in full, or perhaps consider another strategy.

Factors that affect your credit score

So I mostly covered it in that old post, but let’s quickly look at what affects your credit score. It’s important to understand what a credit score is and how it’s used.

Simply put, the banks are trying to figure out whether you will pay them back their money. Obviously, if they extend you credit and you never pay it back, they lose money. Your credit score places a numerical value on how “trustworthy” you can be. With that in mind, a quick recap of what affects your credit score.

Payment History

Obviously, if you pay your bills on time, you will look more credit-worthy to the banks. And like I said above, pay your credit card bills on time and in full.

Credit Utilization

This is mostly a fancy word for the amount owed. Basically, if you use a lot of the credit offered to you, then banks find you less credit-worthy. “Why does she need all that extra money?”, they ask. So if you have a lot of credit available to you but you don’t use a lot of it, you seem more credit-worthy to the bank.

Average Age of Accounts

If banks have been extending you credit for a long time, you look more credit-worthy.

New Credit Inquiries

If you keep asking the banks for more credit, that naturally hurts your credit score.

A reminder that a good understanding of how your credit score works can help you keep your score high even when applying for new credit cards

What causes banks to refuse to extend credit to someone

So I said I’d give you a framework for making your decision. Taking into account the factors that affect your credit score above, you can sort of figure out why banks would reject you for a credit card.

If you use up a lot of the credit extended to you, apply for cards all the time, and miss payments, obviously you’ll look bad to banks and they won’t want to give you credit cards.

However, if you’re responsible and pay your cards on time and don’t use up all your credit, you will look different to a bank even if you apply for cards a lot. Does applying for a lot of cards look great? Probably not, but overall you look like a net gain for the banks and they will be more likely to approve you for a credit card.

Your credit inquiries (each time you apply for credit) hurt your score the most in the first three months, and then the negative effect decreases.

So a general rule of thumb, which led to the old app-o-rama strategy, is don’t apply for credit cards more frequently than every three months. But overall, it’s okay to apply for cards every three months because every card you approve for makes your credit utilization look better, assuming you don’t increase your spending. You get more credit extended to you, spend the same amount of money, so your amount of credit used goes down.

And, of course, there are lovely banks like Chase with rules prohibiting you from (generally) getting approved for new cards if you’ve opened too many in the past. Google Chase 5/24 if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Overall, make sure you have a good understanding of where you stand before you apply for new credit cards. Sites like Credit Sesame and Credit Karma will give you an estimation of your credit score, too.

I don’t use Credit Sesame much anymore, but it’s still a good place to monitor your general credit worthiness

How often do you apply for credit cards overall?

This, ultimately, is what I asked my friend and the most relevant to her situation. If you consider yourself a travel hacker and apply for cards all the time, you should follow the general rule of thumb and wait 90 days for new cards.

But if you’re just starting out, or have a lot of expenses coming up, it’s not the worst thing in the world to apply for, say, two cards within a month of each other. It will definitely hurt your score in the short term but on time payments and your credit utilization should balance that out in the long term.

Which is why I say everything depends. Personally, I don’t adhere to a strict 90 days anymore, though I try to keep everything spaced out like that as a general guideline.

Some questions to ask yourself

As promised, here’s the TL;DR version. A framework, if you will, of what to ask yourself/think about if you are trying to figure out how often you should be applying for new cards.

Do you have any large credit needs (e.g., mortgage), coming up in the next 90 days?

While the general answer to how often to apply for new lines of credit is 90 days, a good understanding of yourself and your habits in relation to the above questions should help you determine situations when you might not want to wait the full 90.

Final Thoughts

Again, I can’t reiterate this enough. You have to figure out what works for your current financial situation. But I’d definitely advise against messing around if you’re not paying your credit cards off in full. Personally, I don’t apply for cards every 90 days anymore. I just wait until I see sign up bonuses I like and then pull the trigger. That means sometimes I’ll go six months with no new cards. Other times, I apply for 3 cards in the span of 12 days.

If you’re a beginner, start out slow and find out what works for you. Hopefully this gives you a general idea of what to consider in terms of time between new cards. Remember, sign up for cards with your travel goals in mind. Happy travels!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Welcome to my new series, Summer Suggestions, where I recommend places for you to visit this summer because we can’t! While I’ll offer some ideas about how to get there, what to do, this series isn’t meant to be comprehensive. I just want to write about fun destinations and put some ideas out there for […]

]]>

Welcome to my new series, Summer Suggestions, where I recommend places for you to visit this summer because we can’t! While I’ll offer some ideas about how to get there, what to do, this series isn’t meant to be comprehensive. I just want to write about fun destinations and put some ideas out there for people to get in their heads. For the first of this series, I’ll discuss things to do in the Amalfi Coast in Italy, and why we loved it so much.

Amalfi Coast at night

Believe it or not, before I got married I had forgotten my love of travel. My wife and I planned a two week trip to Europe for our honeymoon that involved a week of culture (cities) and a week of relaxation (the coast). We settled on the Amalfi Coast in Italy because we both fell in love with Italy separately earlier in our lives. If you’re looking for a lovely summer vacation, family or otherwise, might I suggest the Amalfi Coast? My one caveat: you may want to consider somewhere else if your kids still use strollers. I remember shaking my head at this poor family carrying a child in a stroller up hundreds of steps in Positano. Jokes on me now, I guess!

Why visit Amalfi? It’s beautiful, with cities cut into cliffs over the ocean. Despite it being very popular with tourists, you can find quiet spaces if you’d like. If you’re active, there are lots of great hikes, if you love the water, you can find a beach or get out on the water yourself. The food and drink, of course, are great as in all of Italy,

Let’s take a quick look at how to get there, where to stay, and things to do in the Amalfi Coast!

How to get to the Amalfi Coast

Let’s be honest, odds are you choose to fly into Rome. While I don’t love Rome, it’s still pretty neat and we spent a day there before going to Amalfi. From Rome you can take a train to Naples or Salerno, Salerno already is part of the Amalfi Coast. However, most people like to go see Sorrento, which is what we did. From Naples we took a second train to Sorrento and then explored the city for a day before taking the SITA bus to Praiano where we stayed.

If you travel to the Amalfi Coast, you’ll likely become very acquainted with the SITA bus. You can buy a multi-day pass and if you’re anything like us, you’ll end up using the SITA bus to travel between the various towns dotting the Amalfi Coast. Watching these SITA bus drivers navigate tiny roads on cliff sides brings both fear and awe from new riders. It’s something you have to experience to believe, but rest assured they are professional and great at their jobs. Except maybe that one time the driver refused to yield to oncoming traffic and caused a huge traffic jam.

Get to know and love the SITA bus

Miles and Points availability to Rome

Like I said, I don’t mean for this post to be comprehensive, but I did do a quick search for flights to Rome. Sorry for the East Coast bias. NYC-FCO has lots of space in economy on Delta for four:

Delta availability Summer 2018

Detroit and Boston look similar. Turns out, if you’re willing to fly economy, UA and even AA have space too. Not a bad deal for a family of four.

United availability summer 2018American availability summer 2018, lots of British Airways though

Where to stay in Amalfi Coast

Positano and Amalfi are the large towns and have hotels, but I would suggest renting an apartment. We rented one in the small town of Praiano, which sits in between Positano and Amalfi. You can take the aforementioned SITA bus or hike between towns. We rented from Summer in Italy, although obviously plenty of other options popped up since our honeymoon. The news that AirBnB plans to start a loyalty program might entice some people, plus there’s always VRBO and even random stuff like Trip Advisor.

We really enjoyed staying in an apartment. We cooked some of our own food, lived among the locals, and took lukewarm showers. OK, maybe it wasn’t all great. But definitely for a family (which we’ll be next time we visit), I think an apartment is the way to go.

Preparing lunch at home saved a lot of money

Things to do in the Amalfi Coast

We loved our time in Amalfi, in large part because we took part in so many different activities. We stayed in our apartment for a week and had a nice mix of active and relaxing activities. While I don’t remember exact details, I’d like to give you a little taste of what you can do in Amalfi.

1. Hike

I detailed our sort of crazy hiking expedition a couple of years ago. Since the various cities of the Amalfi Coast sit in the mountains, you can hike from one to another. With the ocean below you, the experience of hiking from town to town really struck a chord with me. Like all hikes, it’s super peaceful, though these particular hikes are punctuated by the random honks of SITA buses. That added to the charm for me. Grab a map at the local TI, although the hiking is pretty straightforward: just climb in the direction of the next town and you’ll likely find it. Bring comfortable shoes!

View from a church high above Praiano

2. Eat

OK, it’s Italy, so this is sort of cheating. But we had some amazing meals on the Amalfi Coast. Some of the best were, of course, after long hikes. I’m 90% sure we ate here in Positano. I might as well have written the Trip Advisor review that states, “We climbed up one million steps and wandered around and stumbled here for a drink. They couldn’t have been more accommodating and nice.”

But what I’d suggest above all, as I would in all of Italy, is eat like the Italians do. Take your time, drink your wine, and enjoy to the fullest. And leave room for dessert, either at the restaurant or at a gelateria.

3. Stroll

One thing we loved about staying in Praiano was taking quiet strolls in the evening after dinner. Since it’s a smaller town, it sometimes felt like we were the only tourists out at night. One night we happened on what I assume is the town square. Families of multiple generations just hung out at night. Kids playing soccer, grandparents having a chat. It was simultaneously a cacophony and very familial and intimate. I hope to bring my kids to hang out there one day.

View over Amalfi town

4. Beach

While we didn’t end up sitting on the beach ourselves, there are lots of beaches available if you want to just relax in the sun. Some connect right to town, while others require walking down more flights of stairs. With the cliffs above and the sea in front of you, it’s tough to think of many more picturesque places to relax than the beaches of the Amalfi Coast.

5. Boat

Or, if you’re feeling more adventurous, find your own private beach. We rented a small motorboat for $100 USD (though this was 10 years ago) from Amalfi. After hiking, this marked my favorite part of our time in Amalfi. When you hike, you get to see the view from the top of the cliffs. In a boat, you see the view from the bottom. We boated from town to town until we found a small beach cut into the rocks. My wife swam over and had her own personal beach for half an hour. If you’re comfortable driving a boat (it’s basically like driving a car, don’t take sharp turns, stay away from the shore), I’d highly recommend this.

Find your own private beach

Final Thoughts

Like I said, this series isn’t meant to be comprehensive, but I hope you at least have an inkling of what Amalfi Coast has to offer. If you’re still deciding where to visit, I’d highly recommend putting it on the list. We had a blast and plan to go back with our (now much larger) family one day.

Have you been to the Amalfi Coast? What would you recommend? Let us know in the comments!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

The miles and points game has definitely changed over the past few years. These days, you may get more value using points to book cash flights instead of stressing searching for award space. Bob Dwyer detailed the rise of bank points in this great post on Saverocity. Then he went ahead and ranked the major […]

]]>

The miles and points game has definitely changed over the past few years. These days, you may get more value using points to book cash flights instead of stressing searching for award space. Bob Dwyer detailed the rise of bank points in this great post on Saverocity. Then he went ahead and ranked the major flexible currencies over at Milenomics.

The other day, I found out some people I knew spent $500 farming out a reservation to an award booker. Said award booker merely used their points to book cash flights through Chase travel and booked one extra leg using Avios and called it a day. If you plan to earn hundreds of thousands of points, please at least know how to cash them out for cash flights.

This post aims to assist you with that. Up front let me say it won’t be completely comprehensive, I’m no DoC. But I’ll hit some of the main currencies you can use for cash flights and give a quick primer on how to go about doing that. Hope it helps you get the most out of your points.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

The simplest way to book travel with cash using Ultimate Rewards is to use the Chase travel portal online. Your Ultimate Rewards earning cards should display the balance, if not, click “see balance”, then “redeem”. Then go to “Use Points” in the menu and “Explore and Book Travel”. From that point, the interface looks exactly like Orbitz or any other OTA.

If you want to do something fancier like book a cruise or buy Disney tickets, you’ll need to call in. You can find the number at the bottom of the “Explore and Book Travel” page. I’ve also included the numbers for the cards I have here:

Chase Sapphire Reserve: 1-855-234-2542

Chase Ink or Freedom: 1-866-951-6592

With the Reserve you’ll get 1.5 cents per point, Ink or Sapphire preferred 1.25 cents per point, and 1 cent per point with the Freedom.

This type of interface should be accessible even if you’re not a travel hacker

American Express Membership Rewards

Max cash value for travel: ~1.5 cents per point (with Business Platinum Rebate)

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Membership Rewards points can be used to book cash flights online. Click the top left menu and navigate to “Travel”. Click on “Book a Trip” and again you’ll be at an Orbitz type search engine. One nice thing about American Express is the ability to search for cruises online. Not all cruise lines are represented (notably Disney), but that is a nice touch.

If you’d like to book over the phone, just call the number on the back of your card and indicate you’d like to book travel. That will connect you with a travel agent.

Membership Rewards get a standard value of 1 cent per point. The one exception is if you use your Business Platinum card you get a 35% rebate on your points, giving you approximately 1.5 cents per point.

Citi ThankYou Points

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Again, booking online is the easiest. Scroll down to “Rewards” at the bottom of the screen after you log in. Click on “view rewards and redeem” on the account of your choosing. You’ll have to select the ThankYou account you are using again (if you have multiple), and then at the top menu navigate to “Travel” => “Flights” (drop down menu). Or hotels or cars, as you like it.

You can book on the phone via the number on the back of your card, indicate you’d like to book travel. Remember with Chase, Amex, and Citi, you can use your points to book Disney hotel packages. If you want to book a cruise, this is the only way to do it. Ask specifically for the cruises and tours department.

If you have the Citi ThankYou Preferred, you get an even 1 cent per point on everything. The Citi Prestige gives you 1.25 cents per point on flights only, Citi Premier gets you 1.25 cents per point on all travel, including cruises.

Great stuff from US Bank

US Bank Flexperks

Max cash value for travel: 1.5 cents per point

Flexperks Earning Cards: Flexperks, Altitude

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

So, of course, you can do the whole online portal thing, but US Bank has introduced a much better way to redeem your points as of last week (unless you have the Amex). Frequent Miler broke the news that you can redeem via Real Time Mobile Rewards. You’ll want to login to US Bank, then go “My Rewards” => “Redeem Rewards & Access Card benefits” => “Card Benefits” => “Real Time Mobile Rewards” => “Activate”.

Then, whenever you make a travel purchase, you’ll get a text asking if you want to redeem points for it. It automatically calculates at a value of 1.5 cents per point. Brilliant. That means if you buy direct from the airline/hotel/car rental, from Orbitz, wherever, you can redeem your points for it. You aren’t a slave to US Bank’s travel portal and their prices.

Of course, if you’d like to book over the phone, call the number on the back of your card. The math is simple for Flexperks, you get 1.5 cents per point redeemed.

Bank of America Travel Rewards, Premium Rewards

Max cash value for travel: 1 cent per point

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Bank of America Travel Rewards

While you only get 1 cent per point when redeeming, people love Bank of America Travel Rewards because you can earn up to 2.625% on every dollar spent (if you have over $100K in Bank of America accounts). Online, just click on your credit card account => “view my rewards” => “redeem points”. Travel Rewards is a “zapping” kind of system. After you’ve made a travel purchase, you can choose to redeem points against that purchase in the form of a statement credit. The minimum you can redeem for is 2500 points ($25).

“Zap” your purchase

Bank of America Premium Rewards

Bank of America Premium Rewards works like an online travel portal. Click on your card => “view my rewards” => “redeem points” => “redeem (Travel)”. You’ll be brought to an online booking portal where you can search for flights, hotels, and cars for 1 cent per point.

Hopefully you can combine points between these two products in the future

Final Thoughts

I didn’t include the Capital One and Barclays Arrival cards because I no longer carry them, but they both work in a “zap” your purchase fashion. So basically you can redeem against a travel purchase with points for a statement credit.

Hopefully, you already knew all this and only use this post for reference. Or better yet, you’ve got all this memorized. If not, please remember you can use your points to book cash flights! Use points first, as Freequent Flyer says, and cash last.

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

Rachel Berkey, a moderator at the Award Travel 101 Facebook group, inspired me with this tip. One of the benefits touted with the Chase Disney credit card is a free meet and greet at Epcot Center, amongst other ancillary benefits. However, the Chase Disney debit card offers the same benefit, doesn’t waste a credit card […]

]]>

Rachel Berkey, a moderator at the Award Travel 101 Facebook group, inspired me with this tip. One of the benefits touted with the Chase Disney credit card is a free meet and greet at Epcot Center, amongst other ancillary benefits. However, the Chase Disney debit card offers the same benefit, doesn’t waste a credit card application, and can be obtained easily for current Chase bank account customers.

I signed up for a Chase checking account years ago and use it occasionally. Since Chase doesn’t have branches in Massachusetts (yet!), I always assumed product changes and the like would be pretty difficult. Why? Because whenever I tried to do the product change to a Disney debit card online it said “product not available in your area.” I assume that’s due to the no branches in MA thing.

I’m not sure you can even sign up for a Chase checking account online if there is no branch in your area, but somebody please correct me if I’m wrong.

Changing your regular Chase debit card to a Chase Disney debit card

Anyway, if you find yourself in a situation like me and want to change your debit card to a Disney debit card for the free meet and greet, follow these simple steps.

Call the Disney Visa Debit Card Customer Service line: 1-877-388-5726. I got the number from disneydebit.com.

Press 2, other options

Press 3, open new account (even though you already have a Chase account)

Press 1, personal accounts

Press 1, new account (again, even though you already have one)

Tell the representative you want to switch to a Disney debit card

That’s it. A simple five minute phone call and a week later your Disney debit card will show up in the mail.

Disney Debit card benefits

The debit card mostly has the same benefits as the Disney credit card, without the Disney dollars earning. I can basically boil it down to two benefits that matter (1.5, really). But again, changing to the card is free and has no practical effect on your account with Chase aside from gaining these benefits. The benefits are:

There are quite a few random restrictions on the stores and restaurants you get the 10% off at, so make sure you read the fine print. Or don’t, the card is freeeeeeee. My biggest “issue” with the 10% food discount is you have to use the debit card to get it, aka no points. Too much math for me.

The debit card also offers various random discounts at random places, but they’re too niche to consider valuable for all. But definitely valuable for some.

Let’s finish up by talking about the meet and greet. It’s the whole reason why I think the Chase Disney debit card is worth the five minute phone call.

Freeeeeee photo

Epcot Center Meet and Greet

The entrance to the free character meet and greet sits right near Journey to Imagination with Figment. Basically walk up towards the jumping fountains and you should see it to your left.

Let me just detail why this meet and greet is great.

Little to no lines, I had three parties in front of me, which is the most I’ve ever heard of.

Free Photopass photos, meaning you don’t have to pay for the photos. If you don’t want to pay for Memory Maker but want at least a few photos with some characters, this is a great option.

The character meet is Mickey and a friend, and you get to take pictures of them together. That’s always fun since most (though not all) meet and greets are just one character at a time.

That’s it! A short line for a cute meet and greet with free photos. You can do this once a day for up to six people, and just need to flash your card when you get in. I don’t even think I had to swipe anything, just show the card, so…

Final Thoughts

If you already have a Chase checking account, switching to the Chase Disney debit card is fairly easy. If you plan on opening a Chase checking account and ever going to Disney World or Disneyland, consider grabbing the Disney debit card version. You get some nice benefits, your kids get to take a few pictures, and you get to download them for free. Everybody wins!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In my last post, I detailed my (mostly) successful experience flying alone with my two young children, which went much better than my first attempt. If you’re flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers, let me share a few ideas about how to best set your family up for success.Like I said in the last post, […]

Like I said in the last post, meltdowns on a flight often have a lot to do with luck. Still, I feel it’s good to prepare and set yourself for the lowest probability of meltdown. Here are seven suggestions I’d make to help making flying alone with preschoolers more manageable. As always, would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! If you hear echoes of the experience I shared in my last post, it’s because I’m not only a spokesperson for these ideas, I’m also a customer.

Happy to be airborne

If you’d like to support the blog, I’ve indicated when I’ve added my Amazon affiliate link for certain products in the post (well, just one), would appreciate it if you used it. You can always find other travel products I recommend on my family travel gear page.

Seven ideas to make flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers more manageable

1. Pick a time to fly that works for your child

First and foremost, I’d say pick a flight time that best sets yourself up for success. Yes, you’ll save a ton of money flying at 6 AM or 9 PM, but is that worth potential disaster? This rings especially true if your travel puts you alone with multiple young children, like my latest trip.

Like I said above, I enjoy traveling mid-morning. I can wake the kids up normal time, and we can either have lunch on the plane or when we land. Others know their kids will nap fine on the plane (either through experience or because they get consistent naps in car seats). If that’s the case, you can travel after lunch and have your kids nap on the plane. This worked like gangbusters for my oldest daughter, but my son doesn’t nap well on planes so I’ve adjusted.

Know your child and know when they will be at their best. To me, it’s super worth the premium to pay extra to fly accordingly.

Corollary my family and I use: Avoid connections if you can. Every layover just presents another opportunity for things to go wrong.

2. Pack light

Like most parents, I tend to worry about everything. This leads to a tendency to overpack – extra jackets, twice the amount of clothes needed, sunscreen, medicine for every disease known to child, etc. I can be guilty of this, but I work very hard to pack light, it just makes the airplane part of travel so much easier.

That means I only brought the essentials to Florida plus:

1 extra set of clothes

Medicine

Ponchos (it’s Florida and they’re light)

Swimwear

Diapers (I ended up having extra room)

Entertainment for the kids (coloring books, tablet which I forgot, etc.)

So in the end, I ended up with one carry-on sized suitcase (which I checked, more on that later), one adult backpack, one kids backpack, one stroller, and one shoulder bag (like a tote) for food.

That meant except for the short distance from the car to the check in desk, I could always have one hand on the stroller and one hand on my older child. That not only provided convenience, but I also didn’t have to worry about losing anyone in the crowded airport.

You don’t need to bring a million things even when traveling with kids

3. Make life easy on the ground

So why did I check in my bag? Because of Disney’s Magical Express, which delivers your luggage straight to your room. In general, I’m a believer in making life easy for yourself on the ground at your destination at the least, at both departure and destination if possible. I didn’t have to worry about my suitcase and I just got my kids on the bus and was at Coronado Springs in an hour (though again, we definitely got very lucky this time around, it can take up to two hours).

Becky Pokora of sightDOING.net expressed a similar idea on Episode 75 of the Saverocity Observation Deck podcast. Towards the end of the podcast she mentioned she almost always hires a car at her destination just so she can mostly guarantee she’ll get to her lodging with as little stress as possible. When you save a lot of money on travel via hacking, you can afford to splurge a little to make life easier on the ground. In my mind, this goes double when you’re flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers.

Disney’s Magical Express or any car service can save a ton of stress at your destination

4. Don’t stress out about the nap

Yes, most toddlers and preschoolers need a nap. They also need to assert themselves and their independence. In my opinion, fighting with your toddler about napping on a plane isn’t worth it and may even have the opposite effect. I’m sure you have fought with your child about napping at home, imagine doing it in a very public, very confined cylindrical tube 30,000 feet in the air.

Some kids will be self aware enough and decide they want to sleep themselves (my daughter). Others will just never sleep and end up overtired the next day (my son). Some kids will eventually get so overtired they flip out for a time until they eventually pass out in your arms inside the lavatory (both my kids).

It happens. I try not to invite it by picking a fight.

I liken this to calling the bank when you get “pending” for your credit card, which I no longer do. If you start insisting your child take a nap on the plane, you’re inviting them to throw a tantrum early. Yes, they may eventually throw a tantrum if you don’t make them take a nap, but your insisting gives them two opportunities to do that instead of just one.

I’m sure many people disagree with me, and that’s fine. I’ve just found stressing about the nap not to be worth it. On both flights, I calmly asked my son if he wanted to take a nap, he said no. I replied by trying to reason with a two year old about the importance of rest, he said no again, and I just let it go. Luckily he didn’t tantrum and we survived.

Obviously, this strategy needs to be adjusted for longer flights, but we managed for five and a half hours including the delay, and you can too.

5. Make sure your kids are fed

Do I love bringing macaroni and cheese (with broccoli mixed in) onto a plane? I most decidedly do not. But I knew Jetblue wouldn’t even have “real” food for sale on my flight, so I needed some sort of substantial sustenance for the kids. If I hadn’t woken up so late I would have added ham.

The two most consistent reasons my kids, and I think most kids, get cranky are still lack of sleep and hunger. While I’ve established I try not to stress out too much about the former, I definitely prepare for the latter. I reserved an entire carry on bag for snacks, the macaroni and cheese, milk, etc. I even bought easy mac for the ride home. Spend that extra time and use up that extra space to make sure your kids won’t be hungry on the plane, and ideally, not just loading up on chips and pretzels. Trail mixes are great for protein if your kids will eat them.

I brought treats for my son (aforementioned Reese’s Pieces), and doled them out over time. Another very effective technique for toddlers is putting tiny snacks into a pill box (Amazon affiliate link) – it really drags out the whole process!

The basic premise: bring activities, food, entertainment, etc. that can be doled out to your toddler in 20 minute segments (minimum). Whether it be coloring books, a TV show, or a snack in a pillbox, prepare to have a variety of activities for your child.

The idea sounds simple and it is! I’m not a very organized person but I still managed to get on that plane (with very little luggage) with over ten twenty minute activities. My activities included the aforementioned pill box, a coloring book, a sticker book, the mac and cheese, multiple TV shows, and more.

Mixing things up will prevent the kids from getting bored, and planning in this fashion will prepare you to entertain them on the trip even if you’re a bad planner (me). Bring some candy for yourself, too.

Cherish these moments on the plane

7. Practice, practice, practice at home

If you can’t handle your young kids at home, you’re certainly going to struggle up in the air. So if you don’t get put in 1 v multiple situations at home, put yourself in them. This goes double for whichever parent spends less time taking care of the kids.

Taking care of the kids alone at home obviously gives you a practical advantage. You get used to being outnumbered and the tightwire act that ensues. You also get the experience of not having a safety net to back you up. I guess you have the kindness of strangers but you potentially have that on the plane too.

But probably the best reason to take care of the kids alone, aside from making your partner happy and more relaxed, is you get to know how you parent the kids. To state the obvious, this knowledge will be invaluable when you’re in a solo situation with the kids. Especially one that has the potential to be high stress.

Also, hanging out with the kids alone is fun. Practice!

Final Thoughts

There’s no surefire way to ensure flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers will be smooth, but there’s lots of ways to reduce stress. These are tips that have worked for me. But every family and every child is different, as you no doubt know if you are a parent.

So, I’d love to hear it: what works for you and your kids when you’re traveling alone with no backup? Or if you haven’t tried it yet, what scares you the most about traveling alone with your little kids? Let me know in the comments!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

About a year ago, I told myself my attempt at flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers probably sufficiently broke me to the point of avoiding traveling alone with the kids. I jest. But here we are, a year later, and I decided to have another go, this time taking an entire vacation with my older […]

]]>

About a year ago, I told myself my attempt at flying alone with preschoolers or toddlers probably sufficiently broke me to the point of avoiding traveling alone with the kids. I jest. But here we are, a year later, and I decided to have another go, this time taking an entire vacation with my older two children (5 and 2.5). I thought I’d just share a bit of my experience and some rudimentary tips for trying to survive being alone with small children in a small cylindrical tube.

A couple quick notes before I get into it. First, I chose Disney as a location because I thought it would be easier. A Disney hotel reservation offers a lot of benefits that make life easier when you get on the ground. I figured with stuff like Magical Express, I wouldn’t have to worry about hauling luggage or a rental car on the ground. Plus, at a rate of $145/night at Coronado Springs, a moderate hotel (that I could pay for with points too) it seemed like a no brainer. Also, I scheduled the trip to coincide with when my parents were visiting friends in Florida, which obviously helped a ton. They agreed to stay at Coronado as well and spent some time with us in the parks.

Staying at an on site Disney hotel made life a lot easier

Finally, props to anyone who has done this, especially those who have to sometimes. A friend of mine took her two under four year olds all the way from Thailand back to the States. My mom likes to remind me she did the same with my sister and me to Hong Kong. If you want to fly alone with young kids or are in a situation where you have to – know that people have tread that path before and excelled at it. Or at least survived it.

My experience flying alone with two preschoolers

Woke up late, oops

I booked an 8:30 AM flight outbound and a 10:30 AM return because I’ve decided that for short domestic flights (< 3 hours) it’s best for my kids to avoid naptime. Like anti-clockwork, my alarm didn’t go off at 6:00 AM so my wife woke me up in a panic at 7:00 AM. My wife and I tag teammed to make some mac and cheese and we made it out the door by 7:15.

We got to the airport by around 7:40, even with rush hour traffic, and dropped our bags off at check in. Since I had two kids and only two hands, I didn’t want to deal with rolling a carry-on through the airport. (Alas, I think that will be par for the course now until all three are old enough to carry their own stuff).

Getting energy out before the flight

We found a cute little play area in Terminal C where we hung out before heading to the gate. After arrival at the gate we of course had to return to the play area where we left one of our dolls. I like to board late when I’m alone with the kids because they’ll be on the plane long enough, so we hung around the terminal and were some of the last people to board.

A bonus two hours on the plane

Again, like anti-clockwork, when we boarded the plane in Boston, we happened to be in the middle of a mild snow and in freezing temperatures. Jetblue in Boston taxis to a de-icing pad instead of de-icing at the gate. That combined with a bunch of other delays that I can’t even really remember meant we did not have wheels up until 11:00 AM.

2.5 hours on the plane while the flight was still on the ground! To be perfectly honest, I worried a lot about whether my kids (well, mostly the two year old) would lose it at any minute. Oh, and in my rush out the door I forgot our tablet. So how did we survive?

Well, for starters, free TV on Jetblue helped a lot. Between that and my phone (and multiple portable chargers), the kids mostly stayed entertained. I also came equipped with a bunch of coloring books, snacks, and the aforementioned mac and cheese.

We spent a lot of those two hours talking about planes, why they get delayed, the whole deicing situation, watching TV, coloring a little, watching TV, eating candy, watching TV, etc. I refused to bust out the mac and cheese because I knew I had to pace us. Finally, we were on the runway and taking off, and I did a little cartwheel in my head.

A bag lunch and surviving the rest of the flight

I had originally intended the mac and cheese to be lunch for the kids at the time of our descent (which should have been around 12:30 PM). But after they survived the long delay and we took off, I decided that we’d eat lunch right then and there, at 11:15. The kids mostly held it together the whole way.

This saved us

Obviously, avoiding meltdowns has a ton to do with luck. My son had been quite difficult the week before we left so I was pretty nervous, having read a bunch of stories about how all the kids who get kicked off the plane are in terrible twos or threes. Yikes. If I could point to one thing besides luck that saved my bacon, it was a decision early on in the delay to dole out ONE Reese’s Piece to my son every twenty minutes. He bought into it and I managed to get through the whole flight giving him only a little bit more than a Halloween sized pack.

A stress free transfer

When we finally landed, having that Disney hotel reservation really paid off. We just waited for our stroller, squad goals-ed our way through the airport to the Magical Express, got onto the bus (more TV) and went straight to the hotel. An hour later we were in our hotel room, two and a half hours later we were in Pandora at Animal Kingdom. Disney transportation doesn’t always work smoothly, but when it does it is straight up spectacular.

Mostly happy campers!

Final Thoughts

Did part of me root for a meltdown to happen so I’d have something more interesting to write about? I’ll never tell! But hopefully this post reassures anyone out there flying alone with preschoolers that even when things go wrong, you can have a great flight! In my next post, I’ll write about my best ideas for minimizing the risk of having a bad flight experience with your little kids. Until then!

Never miss a post! Subscribebelow and receive an e-mail once a day for new posts from asthejoeflies. Also, follow our family adventures on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.